Julie Kinnaird | January 12, 2021
Welcome, 2021! Not quite like any other start to a year, but with new challenges come new opportunities for learning about and with the world. If nothing else, 2020 taught us to be resilient and innovative in how we teach and how we learn. We relied heavily on each other and on technology. This year UNC World View continues to be resilient and innovative and to use virtual and digital technologies to offer programs that address relevant and exciting themes. We also will have “repeat performances” of two professional development programs that filled to capacity in the fall.
Developing educators’ global competence is at the heart of what UNC World View does. We will continue to do this in the new year with several professional development opportunities. On January 21 we will offer once again the UNESCO Intercultural Competency Training featuring Story Circles with Dr. Darla Deardorff. The Story Circles methodology promotes intercultural competence development in building more inclusive societies and can be used in and out of classrooms. One participant from the fall program noted, “the trainings are great and something that I finally feel that I can apply” and another who said it was “the best training I have ever attended”. We knew we needed to offer this program again!
On February 25 we will examine the social and emotional well-being of educators and students with Teaching in Uncertain Times. We will discuss what it is to be resilient today and gain strategies for ourselves and our students from UNC School of Education’s Dr. Dana Griffin. Experts from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education will also join us to introduce a timely resource guide for educators called Planning for Uncertainty: An Educator’s Guide to Navigating the COVID-19 Era. You do not want to miss this program.
Back by popular demand is another repeat program, Racial Slavery in the Americas: Resistance, Freedom and Legacies in partnership with the Choices Program at Brown University. UNC’s Interim Vice Provost for Academic and Community Engagement and Stone Center Director, Dr. Joseph Jordan will address Diaspora in the Americas: Memory, Myth and Meaning, followed by Mimi Stephens from Choices who joins us to introduce Choice’s invaluable Racial Slavery in the Americas curriculum. The unit explores how and why the system of racial slavery developed in the Americas and how it continues to shape society and affect the lives of people today. This program filled in the fall, so register now for April 15!
There’s more in store for the spring and summer when we’ll offer programs on global business engagement, Africa and the African Diaspora, and a global education leadership program. We will also offer a UNC World View Fellows program to develop curricula on Ancient North Carolinians. The application period will open in March. World View is excited to launch a pilot Teacher Student Initiative that connects a UNC faculty expert virtually with three districts in North Carolina. Through a combination of sessions with the teacher and high school students, the UNC faculty works to create greater global awareness for students as they become the world’s next generation of leaders.
If you aren’t available on the days of the virtual programs but want to stay engaged with professional development in global education, be sure to check out our remote learning modules. With themes of visual literacy, avoiding stereotypes, music and the Caribbean, you’re sure to discover modules that will grow your global knowledge and provide strategies and resources to add to your global toolkit. Stay tuned for more information on spring and summer programming!